Another House-of-cards

I have this re-occurring dream. I’m in a large house with lots of rooms, that have long been neglected, and it’s my job to repair and clean all of it. The house is full of crumbling antiques, left-over messes, and dust—all seemingly abandoned by someone in a hurry, and discarded for another to clean up. In the dream, the house has somehow come into my care. I know I don’t own it, and I don’t get to keep it, but I have to live in it for a while. At some point, my Mom and Dad show up, and try to cajole me to stop the fixing-up process in time to go to church. After much angst and resistance, I sometimes give up and start preparing to leave for the Sunday service. But more often, I insist that there is simply too much to do, and church will have to wait for another day.

I’m convinced this dream is about the split I feel between politics and the spirit. The political world is the house that I, that we have inherited, which is in utter disrepair and needs focused help. It’s been abandoned by others, mostly good-hearted people, who have lost the will to keep fighting the continuous battle to save the house. My parents represent an inner voice, that encourages me to leave the feeling of being overwhelmed by the world’s problems, to focus rather on that still, small voice within—for renewal and awareness, and resources to win the day. They remind me that it’s in simplicity and reverence for what is important, for the spirit within myself and in the shared energy we can engage with others, that we find the greatest strength to go on and move through what seem like the insurmountable obstacles of this world.

We, as a nation, have a mutual house in need of much repair and even a new design. But can you save a “house of cards,” as so many have referred to the present state of our economy? Or is it doomed to continue decaying because its foundations were too shoddy to begin with? Do we have to let the worn out crumble? Are its antiques just relics of bad policies that need to be scrubbed, or are they left-over vestiges of a democracy-more-true, or an economy-more-sure that we need to bring again into the light of day? Where do we go, and to whom do we listen for renewal? Is there the possibility for “change we can believe in?” Does Obama have the courage to clean up this house? The simple truth is: collectively, we have to be active in fixing the system, while remembering what is important at the root—the spirit and vision behind our schemes.

What I know in my heart is that we need to pay close attention to what’s going on right now, at this moment in history. Another round of consolidation of the world’s wealth, and an outright rescue of the financial elite who got us into this economic calamity, is happening right under our noses. The nation’s largest banks, which of course all operate globally, are using U.S. taxpayer-funded bailout money to buy up smaller banks, saying that it rescues us from the risk of our loans and mortgages collapsing, and not telling the flip side, that it gives them unfair competitive advantage for years to come, locally and globally. And our elected leaders, rather than securing our nation’s vital resources and labor through social controls on these large banks, are instead socializing the risks of capital investment and consolidation spearheaded by these maniacal institutions, leaving the tab for our grandchildren to pay off in upcoming “better financial days.” (For those of you who don’t spend time researching where the U.S. gets its deficit dollars to pay for massive spending as an economic stimulus, it is predominantly loaned from Chinese banks on the back of future generations.)

And for what end? When you look at it up close, maybe with the eye of a scrubber, these bailouts are not set up to rescue the average citizen or taxpayer, or mortgage-holder, or even the national economy actually; they are designed in compliance with the same old trickle-down economic relic that we have never seemed to be able to scrub. The point, according to the financial institutions and our new Treasury secretary, is to rescue investors with the hope of creating a new “market bubble” (like the one that got us here) to stimulate more money-making for those willing to wager on another round of economic boom. Why? To make more money, which (they repeatedly mantra in order to keep the faith) the rich will then spend and therefore stimulate the economy in order to keep it working for all of us. Is anyone else about to scream? Wasn’t Reagan championing trickle-down economics like four Presidents ago?

The truth is, Ronald Reagan just had the guts to put to the American people plainly, what had been orchestrated and enacted by large financial institutions for decades, and still is. Even when Democratic presidents push for spending on the poor or middle class to generate opportunity, jobs and social services, they have all still had the other foot, tacitly or overtly supporting the deregulation of banking and financial services, allowing the global expansion and consolidation of wealth that has now become so rampant. President Obama, you have inherited a messy house! And I’m not sure why you presume that Timothy Geithner or Lawrence Summers will be able to lead us out of it. Without going into their past (and quite controversial resumes), they have in their present positions so far, shockingly expressed the same strategies that got us here as the remedy to get us out. While following the same-old, same-old may create a short-term fix for the financial crisis, or may not; it definitely will not generate a more sustainable and vibrant culture and economy for the children we wish to inherit it.

So many executives and financial advisors will only accept that we must first “shore-up” our economic institutions to encourage job creation, but this is an adage more rhetoric than substance in fact. Wealth creation and bailouts for the rich rarely translate into secure job creation or equitable social services for the poor, as the recent past should have so blatantly shown us. Private banks and investment firms only have the opportunity to make money in the midst of a manufactured boom-and-then-bust reality—a volatile market that is in their interest. In such a reality, jobs are temporary at best, and are often collateral damage for larger schemes. These corporate tactics aren’t idiocy; they’re calculated risks by people who know they’re more likely to recover than the rest of us when the boom returns; and the government, meaning you and me, will have buffered the worst part of the economic burden, meaning any monetary shortfall. It allows them to simultaneously buy up bad assets and accumulate broken institutions, with the federal government cushioning the biggest risk, while continuing to raise interest and fees robbing the poorest, in a way somehow “justified” by a bad economy.

A new round of borrowing based on an unpredictable future to make solvent the institutions whose unregulated risk-taking got us in this mess, will not repair and stabilize our economy. The less complicated and direct the strategy, the more likely it is to actually arrive as assistance to those in need, and to build the human economy. We need a commitment to renewal and a focus on the long-term to recover our situation from the grip of greed and corruption. There is strength in inner focus and simplicity, and it is possible to be inwardly focused, on improving our cultural models and realigning our financial house, without being protectionist about trade and exchange. We should keep jobs at home, and not borrow outside our borders, for our own sake. Retaining our nation’s wealth in labor, and our nation’s debt makes us strong, and not indebted and overextended to others, who have much less interest in our success as a nation, or as a global player. What is in our interest, is to keep our wealth in the family, so to speak, and to diplomatically and strategically develop ourselves as a good role model and innovator to the world. Then we can have a responsible role as a global citizen, not as a domineering superpower with no real “stability” to back it up, or as an international banking cartel willing to do anything, even rob the national treasury and the wealth of future generations, to retain “control.”

Every time I think about the potential of President Obama at this time in history, the poem from Dr. Seuss, “Oh, the places you’ll go!,” written as a cautionary tale to young people, comes to mind.

“Oh, the places you’ll go! …You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose… With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street…”*

It begins full of optimism and forecasting potential greatness. But it goes on to reveal what can happen to anyone who pushes too far, too fast, or who does not steer his/her course with wisdom and humble clarity.

“I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you… You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a Slump… Un-slumping yourself is not easily done… Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.”*

Mr. Obama, you are a mind-maker-upper whom we want to rely on, but we will trust you more if you listen to the citizenry that got you here, rather than giving in to the talking heads swirling about you now. A slump of public opinion isn’t easy to un-slump. And a renewed sense of the need for justice and fairness with our money is a primary concern echoing in the minds of U.S. citizens. The optimists within our country who believed they could do anything, even elect an African-American President, are still present and waiting to create a new home—a new livable, equitable reality to our national landscape. Thankfully, we have millions of cultural-creatives ready to do the job. But you must make up your mind to support us, and to help create a situation that is structurally sound enough to build on. Remember the truth of your campaign adage: “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

No true change ever happens without a collapse of the old. We sometimes have to let failures fail, especially when the reasons for failure are manipulative and corrupt, and choose instead to walk with the courage to innovate and create a more perfect union. How you navigate these important days, Mr. President, will determine much about whether your destiny is to become the leader of our future stability, or the caretaker of a relic already crumbling under the weight of its own hubris. You have to take risks that are beyond the parameters of the game as we have known it. As Dr. Seuss says, there are “games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.”* Quit letting these executives play against us, against our national economy. As Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz recently summed it up,

“The question isn’t just whether we hold them accountable; the question is: what do we get in return for the money that we’re giving them? …We got cheated, to put it bluntly. What we don’t know is that—whether we will continue to get cheated. And that’s really at the core of much of what we’re talking about. Are we going to continue to get cheated?”*

“Oh, the places you’ll go!,” Mr. Obama, if you take the risk we all need, to be a defender of the commonwealth, a statesman of the people, rather than another President bandaging a broken system, and deferring to the whims of politicians and executives. Seuss-the-sleuth wisely concludes with a warning, “So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that ‘Life's a Great Balancing Act.’ Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.”* Your right foot is the populist vigor, the call for fairness and transparency—the one that got you here; your left wants to keep you mired in the policies and predicaments of the past. Thankfully, I’m just one of a chorus of voices right now, telling you to keep your feet on the ground.

*(thanks to the brilliant insight of Dr. Seuss, Oh, the places you’ll go! from Random House, 1990.)

*(Joseph Stiglitz quoted from an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, 2/25/09)

Please, take the time to read what else is being written out there about this monumental transition that our national economy is facing.

Find good reading at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/

http://www.alternet.org/

http://www.prospect.org/

http://www.democracynow.org/

http://www.truthout.org/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Also, for a note of creativity and bravado, that is refreshing in this time:

Read what Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio thinks homeowners should do in these dire times in “Facing foreclosure? Don’t leave. Squat.”

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/04/EDK215MNA0.DTL&hw=Amy+goodman&sn=001&sc=1000

Gaza response

When I observe the intensity and the horrors of a new round of war, as we see this week in the Gaza Strip, my emotions overwhelm my ability to find the prose to speak of it. Floods of emotion have always flowed out of me in poetry, and so I ask for your indulgence with a verse that undams the waters of my feelings. I further ask of you to find the bravery within yourself to give attention to, and to honor the many photos of buried and wounded children available from Reuters, AP and other news services. They deserve our view.

A New Round

Oh, to respond to
a crisis which never ends…
Violence begets violence.
Violence begets violence!
What confusion stirs
the passion to ignite
a new round of bombs,
clustering and defeating
the possibility of Now.

Vengeance is mine, the Lord
says to the deaf, blind, and
dumb impulse for destruction.
What is this grey line we
dare designate for convenience?
What defense do we have
to skip past the purpose of
History’s interplay of force
and power… the pride.

Life is confusing, but need
we repeat the worst parts of
a past not worth repeating,
a bloody misuse of the Grace
that only God can proffer,
for such a time as this?
We need not fear; this
past of never-healing, never
ending can resolve itself
into the dance of Infinity’s
time, in time, in now to offer
a new way to recover.

Hollow threats, explosive lust
will not satisfy the needs born
of a holocaust too great to grasp
and far more dangerous
to repeat, as we create that
which we strive to integrate, to
experience the impulse we have
fallen victim to, so greedily anew.

Each moment is a new
moment to recover; every
child is a new child waiting
to be saved from a past
that’s equal to our own.
Violence begets violence.
There is no in between.
Only restitution begets a new
pattern of possibility, the
sense of purity that pervades
everything—a restorative impulse
can change everyone, just one,
for the instance at hand.

I am not new at this.
Violence is old in me.
When will I grow past its
immanent whisper to control?
A new round will not make
right the eons of suffering
that designate winners and
losers for a while, till another
cannon is loosed on another
village of souls that are equally
frightened and innocent. Just
break free, just let go, just
hold to the now that is
precious and available to ease
all the years of impotent valor.

A new round, a new round,
a new life of resolved boundaries,
celebratory borders, of checkpoints
for healing, coexistence, a
round of commonality—I am
not that much different than
you are; I am not that much
different than you think I am.
Both are true, both are true;
I shed blood like you.

Good news!

Check out the article from AP, "Regulators adopt new credit card rules" by Marcy Gordon @
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gUaC-canALwb8
SUTCxDm3shnk1YAD9555QUO0

Some of the new rules outlined here are exactly what I was hoping for, with the issues concerning credit addressed in my last post. I see a new focus on more beneficial regulation and banking practices coming from this financial crisis. Although I know it affects all of us negatively to some degree, the best that could come of this situation is a new understanding of how unfairly the banking system has treated people who are already living on the edge, a new due diligence to protect their interests, and a real opportunity for those swamped in debt to get out of their present predicaments. These changes ought to be only the beginning; there are many more unfair and predatory practices to be addressed. I pray this change indicates a new view on the part of our policymakers toward economic fairness and justice... that is the vision I hold for today.

Bailout fever

"Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten us into."* As Hardy always blamed Laurel for his buffoonery, it’s hard not to blame the recent administration and its free-wheeling approach toward market economics for the crisis we find ourselves in. But in reality, the problems created by unregulated banking and predatory lending run much deeper, and go far further back into history, than the era George W. Bush represents.

I could go all the way back, to the original Jefferson-Hamilton debates—whether we should have a federal central bank, and federal treasury at all—if these in fact violate the notion of, and the possibility for a free republic. But that’s another blog. Instead, I’ll refer to the far distant past of 1991 when I was 17, and an unsolicited Citibank credit card came to me in the mail. It wasn’t an offer, like today’s credit solicitations are. It was an actual, usable credit card, that I just had to call in and activate. The letter said something like, “As a student, you are a valued member of the future economy. For all your education needs, let Citibank be there for you.” I couldn’t vote yet, or choose to have a drink legally, but I was somehow considered capable of making complex decisions around borrowing and credit, without even an income—just a future. For this and many other abuses of the current enormous, now multi-national banks, Thomas Jefferson has, I’m sure, been rolling in his grave.

Now a Citi-group, which has $2 trillion in assets and 200 million customers worldwide, Citi is one of the institutions our government has designated “too large to fail”—referring to the far-reaching economic impact that would result from such a corporation’s demise. Our 401Ks are all invested in these multinational mega-banks, even if your choice has been a “socially responsible” account. After years of repeatedly asking retirement account consultants why investing in the world’s largest banks, that engage in rampant predatory lending is socially responsible, I have received no satisfactory answers. Asking them if they know anything about the structural adjustment programs that force small economies to cut social services, and basic health and welfare as a condition to receive “financial aid” in the form of loans from large banks, I have heard only silence. Inquiring whether they knew that big development projects in places like China (that are guilty of rampant human rights abuses) are made possible by the availability of capital from global banks, and provide the avenue for big governments to push out the interests and often the livelihoods of average people, I was returned only blank stares. In fact, the only answers I received at all, told me how investing in large banks is considered a solid growth bet, that these are the “blue-chip stocks” that support the core of the market, and the stability of my portfolio.

After even the most basic studies in political economy, it seemed obvious to me, that this financial structure was a house of cards waiting on one small, unregulated catalyst to instigate a collapse. And now, so many financial advisors are suddenly willing to say the same thing—it should have been obvious. Even after being caught for feeding off of an unregulated housing and insurance market, the large corporate banks are the ones first to be considered for a bailout, rather than dealing with the loss of profits as a consequence to gambling on our economy. Whereas one or two missed payments by consumers during hard times, elicits a pronounced reaction by large banks, who carelessly raise credit account rates to 24.9 or 30.9% interest. Their response to this crisis, even when being bailed out by our tax dollars, is to continue to “raise credit interest rates for many customers,” lay off tens of thousands of workers (Citigroup announced 53,000 more layoffs last week), and to raise banking fees. “Overall, fees are on the rise throughout the banking business as financial institutions look for ways to increase profits.”* $2 trillion is assets isn’t enough for some, I guess. Even though Citigroup operates in 107 countries, it’s somehow my responsibility as an American taxpayer to bail out their corporate jets, and try to come up with 29% interest payments too.

This isn’t about George W. Bush. These are policies, or maybe better said the lack-of-policies, of many of his predecessors and their financial experts, including Bill Clinton. In 1998, after Citicorp and Travelers announced what was then an illegal merger, the protective Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, was replaced by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, which allows insurance, investments, credit and consumer banking all to be the business of one corporation. Glass-Steagall was drafted after the dire situation faced in the Great Depression of 1929 precisely to prevent the abuses of power, and risk-taking inherent in combining so many financial services. And by the way, you read that right, the law was changed in response to, or in a way that accommodated the violation of the law that Citicorp had already committed. Subsequently, and to our misfortune, we have allowed a situation wherein the control of our money is held by global institutions willing to take great risks with our future, and who are truly beholden to no one. The trick is, we are all also so deeply invested in their success, with our insurance and 401Ks, that “we can’t let them fail.”

What did we do to deserve to have such spoiled children running our money and our economic stability as a country? Do they have any idea how to face the consequences of their actions, besides asking for the help of those who have been the victims of their predation? We know it is not beneficial to protect young people from their faults, unless we want to have children, and future leaders, who don’t know how to act responsibly in the world. I agree with Mike Huckabee on this one; it is absolutely not the government’s job to bail out private, corporate interests, consequences or not. My choices did not create their Goliath-mentality, and my descendants do not deserve to be paying for their mistakes. I’m already paying 29% interest! Bailout or not, unregulated financial trading, lending, borrowing, and investing is a mistake we will be paying for a long time into the future, if we don’t make the necessary choice to regulate it now. These companies will continue at great lengths, to gamble with our future. Let’s not wait for another great depression to show us how diligent we must be to keep an eye on those who control so much.

What we must envision, and work for, is a world of personal responsibility and corporate responsibility—where ExxonMobil actually pays for the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and where we encourage our children never to rely on credit for basic necessities, where we personally take the stand to de-link investment accounts from companies that have a history of predatory lending, and where Citigroup can only get a bailout if they forgive some of the massive consumer debt. That is not too much to ask. It’s balanced, and it’s fair, and it is not right to pay for what continues to act as a predator toward most of us. The investors are not the majority; the consumers are—200 million strong, and counting.

*(from Laurel and Hardy, "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into," first spoken by Oliver Hardy in the episode “The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case” in 1930, a year where people truly understood the realities of an economic mess)

*(financial quotes from smartmoney.com and Financial Times at ft.com)

Post-script: I wrote this blog over this week. But the striking news today is a new bailout agreement offering Citi their own $326 billion package, and giving the U.S. government a 7.8% stake in the company. Also for your educational benefit, it was in 1929 that Citi, then the National City Bank of New York, became the largest commercial bank in the world, benefitting by absorbing smaller banks that were struggling in the midst of the country’s largest economic crisis.

True change?

There is no question. Everyone I talk to is excited about the new President. Even those who didn’t vote for him, in general see the historic nature and significance of this turn of world events. And it is a world event. People everywhere look to this election as a point of inspiration, reminding themselves of the feeling that anything is possible. And that’s why it changes things.

Young people now feel they may have a role in the political—no longer “waiting on the world to change.”* The texts I received on election night from my young friends said things like, “Let’s continue to lead America in a better direction!” and “America believes in hope over fear—thank goddess for it!” After decades of fear-based politics, there is a true and meaningful sigh of relief for this “better” direction. Young people aren’t naïve though; they know the feeling of what happens may turn on a dime. Fear has been the mode of the realpolitik for so long. Even with a Democratic majority in Congress, the politics of competition, special interests and party may still significantly rule the day.

The difference that Obama makes however, reminds me of the best role of a leader, and really the best role of government. It is to inspire—to get people to believe in the coordinated effort of individuals, and to assure them that the government will either help the cause, or get out of the way. What the people want should be what the government wants. But the truth is, “we know that the fight ain’t fair,”* and that the difference will be how we feel about what is available to us in this new direction. The myth of an apathetic citizenry should be dissolved by the overwhelming turn-out for this election, but we must be careful that we do not again accept that lie as the hidden reality behind our choices.

I’m counting on President Obama’s grandmother. She chose to leave this plane the day before the election. What a interesting coincidence. Or is it? I believe that our higher selves have much to do with the time of our birth and our death, and even if that’s not a concept you’ve ever thought of before, come on, Obama’s grandmother dying the day before the election! That’s not cosmic nihilism at play; that’s cosmic meaning at work. She must have known that she could watch over him (and us) better from the other side. She must have felt how much he needed to let go of the past, to feel the turning point between worlds that this moment is, to best serve in the healing role that he has been offered. And she must have felt what she could do, to join us, in guiding this new leader to define a better day in America.

I know what grief does. It makes you realize the importance of every moment you have. It makes every decision feel like the last decision you will ever make. And that kind of clarity is what we need to pull our condition out of the downward-sloping spiral we have been on—with war, with the environment, with human rights and economic justice. We are on the razor’s edge of more catastrophes than I care to count. And a serious tone, a deep view of life and death, and a sober mind are what we need to find our way out of here. Our leaders won’t be able to do it all for us, but they can resolve to be a part of the solution, and not a further part of the problem. As Obama reminded us, “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” May we find it within ourselves to assume that the best outcome is possible, and to know that we do have help—that we have assistance from the world of the seen and the unseen, to make the change that is needed, for all our sakes.

*(thanks and credit to John Mayer’s lyrics in Waiting on the World to Change)